Brevo CRM Explained: Deals, Pipelines, and Contact Management

The CRM inside Brevo is one of its most underrated features. Most people use Brevo only for email and automation, but the real power starts when you combine those tools with built-in deals, pipelines, tasks, scoring, and full customer tracking. You no longer need an external CRM like Pipedrive, Zoho, or HubSpot. Instead, Brevo gives you a simple, clean, and highly effective CRM system that keeps your customer journeys organized and your follow-ups consistent. This guide explains Brevo CRM from the ground up so you know exactly how to use it to organize leads, track opportunities, and manage your customer relationships like a professional sales team.

Key Tip #1: Brevo’s CRM is most powerful when you connect it with automation. Deals, pipelines, and contact updates can run without manual work.

Why Brevo CRM Matters

CRM systems are often expensive, complicated, or overwhelming for small teams. But without a structured CRM, you lose leads, forget follow-ups, and miss growth opportunities. Brevo solves this by giving you a simple but powerful CRM that connects directly with your email, automation, multi-channel messages, and segmentation system.

This means:

  • your leads enter the pipeline automatically,
  • your emails update CRM stages in real time,
  • every contact has full history saved,
  • you can track each customer’s journey end-to-end.

For small businesses, agencies, service providers, ecommerce brands, coaches, and freelancers, Brevo CRM offers everything needed to manage customer relationships without paying for a separate CRM tool.

Inside Brevo CRM: The Full Breakdown

1. Contact Management

Contacts are the foundation of your CRM. In Brevo, each contact has a complete profile that includes:

  • contact details (name, email, phone)
  • custom attributes
  • tags
  • lists
  • website behavior tracking
  • email activity (opens, clicks)
  • SMS/WhatsApp history
  • deal associations
  • tasks and follow-up reminders
  • lead scoring history

Every contact becomes a complete customer record—making Brevo a true CRM, not just an email tool.

2. Deals: Tracking Opportunities

Deals represent potential sales or opportunities. You can create deals manually or automatically inside Brevo.

Every deal includes:

  • deal name
  • deal value
  • close probability
  • close date
  • assigned contact
  • stage in the pipeline
  • notes & activity logs
  • tasks and reminders

This allows your business to track potential revenue and maintain a clear view of your pipeline.

3. Pipelines: Your Visual Lead-to-Customer Journey

Pipelines show the flow of a deal from start to finish. They act as visual boards where you drag and drop deals across stages like:

  • New Lead
  • Contacted
  • Qualified
  • Proposal Sent
  • In Negotiation
  • Closed Won
  • Closed Lost

You can create multiple pipelines for different services or departments such as:

  • Sales pipeline
  • Client onboarding pipeline
  • Ecommerce wholesale pipeline
  • Coaching enrollment pipeline
  • Agency client pipeline

Pipelines help you track where each customer stands, what they need next, and how close they are to converting.

4. Activities & Tasks

Keeping track of follow-ups is where most businesses fail. Brevo helps with:

  • call reminders
  • meeting reminders
  • task automation
  • notes and comments
  • deadline tracking

This keeps your team consistent and removes the risk of forgetting important follow-ups.

5. Lead Scoring

Lead scoring in Brevo evaluates contact interest based on behavior, helping you identify hot leads quickly.

Scoring can be based on:

  • email opens
  • link clicks
  • website visits
  • product page views
  • form submissions
  • purchases

High-scoring contacts can automatically move into sales pipelines or email nurturing sequences.

6. Tags & Custom Fields

Brevo allows detailed contact organization:

  • Tags classify behavioral or interest-based segments.
  • Custom fields store unique data such as location, membership level, product interest, or onboarding progress.

This level of segmentation makes CRM actions smarter and more personalized.

7. Automation Integration with CRM

This is where Brevo becomes extremely powerful. Automation can:

  • create deals automatically
  • move deals to new stages
  • update contact information
  • add tags based on behavior
  • assign leads to team members
  • add follow-up tasks
  • trigger sequences based on CRM milestones

This removes hours of manual work and ensures no lead is left behind.

Key Tip #2: Combine automation + CRM pipelines. This creates a self-running system where leads move through stages automatically.

Practical Use Cases for Brevo CRM

1. Coaches & Trainers

  • track student progress
  • organize free calls and paid enrollments
  • manage upsells or long-term programs

2. Agencies

  • manage client leads
  • track project proposals
  • automate onboarding

3. Ecommerce Brands

  • track wholesale negotiations
  • manage B2B relationships
  • create pipelines for returning customers

4. Service Businesses

  • appointment tracking
  • client pipeline stages
  • automated follow-ups

5. Freelancers

  • proposal stages
  • quote management
  • project onboarding workflows

Brevo CRM Pricing Overview

PlanCRM AccessBest For
FreeBasic CRM + tasks + notesBeginners
Starter ($9/month)Essential CRM featuresSmall businesses
Business ($18/month)Full CRM + automation + scoringGrowing businesses
BrevoPlus (Custom)Advanced CRM + team managementAgencies & enterprises

Pros & Cons of Brevo CRM

Pros

  • Simple and beginner-friendly
  • CRM + email + automation in one tool
  • Automatic deal creation available
  • Supports custom pipelines
  • Integrated lead scoring
  • Great for small and medium businesses

Cons

  • Limited advanced CRM analytics
  • Not as deep as enterprise CRMs like HubSpot
  • Interface could be more polished

Final Verdict

Brevo CRM gives you everything you need to organize your leads, manage your pipeline, automate follow-ups, and keep customers moving through your buying journey. It’s built for simplicity and practical use — not complicated enterprise setups. If you want a CRM that works closely with your email and automation system, Brevo gives unmatched value for the price.

Keymara Recommendation:

Use Brevo CRM if you want one system to manage contacts, automate follow-ups, track deals, and organize pipelines without learning a complex CRM.

Continue exploring our Brevo Series to understand multi-channel messaging and pricing — and learn how to build a complete customer experience system.

Key Tip #3: Your CRM becomes powerful when every contact has a next step. Build clear pipeline stages and automate transitions.